As motor vehicles become increasingly sophisticated, there is an attendant need for distributed lighting to a variety of locations of the motor vehicle. While discrete conventional light sources, such as incandescent bulbs, may be placed wherever lighting is desired, there are distinct disadvantages to this mode of lighting. For example, each illumination location (illumination feature) requires a separate bulb and bulb fixture, as well as a separate power lead. These requirements of discrete conventional light sources are undesirably complex and costly, and involve excessive maintenance and increased vehicular weight.
It would, therefore, be a major benefit if a fiber optic distributed lighting system could be used in place of a multiplicity of discrete light sources. However, fiber optic distributed lighting has the draw back that a source of light having sufficient brilliance to adequately illuminate a number of illumination features would require high temperature tolerant fiber optic media. Unfortunately, although available, such fiber optic media are prohibitively expensive to use throughout the fiber optic lighting distribution system.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a fiber optic lighting distribution system which is high temperature tolerant only where required, is inexpensive and easily maintained.